What we have here is a Latin-infused remake of the 1987 romcom that starred Goldie Hawn as a bitchy heiress who take a spill off her yacht, suffers amnesia and falls for a poor carpenter (Kurt Russell) and his three kids. Who better than Anna Faris to take on the Hawn role for an update, right? Except, you see, she doesnt. This time, The House Bunny star is the one playing the carpenter or in this case, a nurse in training.
And the snotty rich bastard? That role goes to Eugenio Derbez, Mexicos biggest star, whos allowed to speak a big chunk of his dialogue in Spanish, complete with subtitles. Its the one original idea that this retrofitted Overboard has to offer. The rest of the movie wears out its welcome muy rapido.
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First of all, Faris and Derbez have zilch romantic chemistry. Hawn and Russell fell in love filming the first Overboard, and theyve been together ever since. Plus, their onscreen sparring radiated a sweet, sexy spark that has made the romantic comedy a DVD/streaming perennial over three decades. How can Faris and Derbez compete with that? They cant. And in this remake, theyre barely trying at all.
Faris, so good with Allison Janney on the TV showMom, stars well as Kate, a hard-working divorced mom of three girls. She cleans carpets to support her family and pay tuition for her nursing training. While doing a job on the yacht of Leonardo Montenegro (Derbez) whose daddy is the third richest man in the world she reacts badly to the elitist bullying of a playboy she rightly calls a condescending prick. When said prick falls off his boat and then cant remember who he is, Kate plots her revenge. Shell trick Leo into thinking hes her husband. Then shell get him a back-breaking job in construction, where hes mocked for his lady hands, force him to babysit for her kids while she studies and ultimately tell Mr. Sex-Crazed that hes sleeping in the garage (no sex for you, sir) until he gets clean and sober.
And so the laughs come tumbling down or so
youd hope. Even by the standards of disbelief-suspending comedy, the remakes plot is damn near impossible to swallow, especially when theres such an abundant lack of chemistry. Or, worse, when Leo turns good guy and starts to enjoy being a poor workslave and also, like,
everybody loves him! WTF! Director Rob Greenberg, working from a script that he and Bob Fisher adapted from Leslie Dixons
original story, lacks the sense of pacing and edgy mischief that the late
director Garry Marshall demonstrated the first time around. And Derbez, who scored a
modest hit last year with the critically-reviled How To Be a Latin Lover, lacks
the ability to go for the jugular that his role needs. Hes too busy being
charming to be a smartass. Faris could have handled the wisecracks fine, but
the script gives her male costar all the good lines, leaving the movies real MVP on the
sidelines. Big mistake.
We know, we know: criticizing
Overboard 2.0 is like firing on a marshmallow with an machine gun. But we doubt audiences with be getting together three decades from now to
remember how much we adored this lukewarm rehash. Goldie and Kurt forever. No
substitutes accepted.
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